UNC campuses scheduled for new fee, tuition increases

By: JournalNow Staff | The Associated Press
Published: February 06, 2012
Updated: February 08, 2012 - 12:21 AM

RALEIGH --

UNC students who pay in-state rates are facing a more than $400 tuition increase, despite President Barack Obama's warning that schools could lose funding if they don't find ways to keep costs down.

The issue is especially touchy in the state that established America's first public university. Student groups from across the state plan to march Friday, just before university system trustees vote on the proposed $468 increase.

Juan Miranda, a 21-year-old senior studying sociology at UNC Greensboro, said he's struggling to pay for school and is working to organize a caravan of students for the protest.

But the cost increases the public university system's president is recommending are well below what campus leaders said they needed and will make up just 17 percent of the $414 million cut by state legislators last year.

"I believe that these recommendations balance the campuses' demonstrated need for increased resources with the limited ability of many students and families to sustain further tuition increases in this tough economy," UNC System President Tom Ross said in a letter to board members.

The undergraduate North Carolina resident student pays an average tuition and fees of $5,294 a year, not including books and living expenses. It is higher at the two flagship schools, with UNC Chapel Hill students paying $6,823 and N.C. State University charging $6,964.

Ross is recommending raising those costs by an average of 8.8 percent when the new academic year starts in August. The bills would increase by 4.3 percent, or $199, next year at UNC Pembroke. At the high end, costs would rise by 9.9 percent at UNC Chapel Hill, UNC Asheville, Winston-Salem State University, Western Carolina University, and the UNC School of the Arts. That means tuition increases ranging from $447 at WSSU to $676 at UNC Chapel Hill.

The average increase would be less than the 9.3 percent approved last year. The university board has wrestled with overshooting a self-imposed limit on tuition increases of 6.5 percent a year.

Ross proposed increasing tuition by an added 4.2 percent on average for the 2013-14 academic year, though Fayetteville State University students would see no further increase.